THE ASTONISHING

When I heard "The Gift of Music" prior to the album release I was thrilled. What an uplifting, catchy and energetic tune. With high expectations I started looking forward to the release of "The Astonishing". When I finally got the album however disappointment set in quickly. The "Gift of music" stands out as a highlight amongst a huge amount of mediocre unmemorable cheesy ballads (Act of Faythe, Alife left behind, Begin Again, Loosing Faythe, Hymn of a thousand voices) and lots of mid-tempo theatrical pomp rock pieces (e.g. Brother Can You hear me, The Road to Revolution, My last farewell, Astonishing ). This album probably holds the record with the most "skip" candidates in my collection so far.

I have been a big Dream Theatre fan since When Dream and Day Unite hit the shelves and I have bought all albums, bought several DVDs and attend several life performances. And with all those purchases I have always been satisfied, sometimes more than satisfied, truly thrilled (Octavarium, A dramatic turn of events, Dream Theater) and totally blown away (WDaDU, Images and Words). But this is for me the absolute lowest point in a long career of an otherwise brilliant band. The often criticised "Falling into infinity" is a stellar masterpiece compared to this. One and a half stars. You can add a couple of stars if you are a fan of cheesy and cringe worthy musicals.